Is long term monogamy unnatural for human beings?

[Neo-Scholastic]

Polygamy has to be for dire situations like taking care orphans and widows during a time when many men in society have been killed.

Otherwise monogamy has to be the norm, or you get guys like me left out with no women to find

Actually, that is one of the major problems with polygamy. While it may be a cliche, women are a civilizing influence on men. It is not healthy for a society to have significant numbers of single young men with few prospects of marriage or avoiding it altogether.

But the question of whether or not it is natural is itself problematic for me. Living in a fallen creation and the corruption of the flesh by sin have altered our relationships to each other and to Nature. So while some desires are common in Nature, making it in one sense "natural", that doesn't equate to nature (including human nature) as God intended it to be. I don't believe God intended for people to be alone, yet many are. I do not believe God intended for people to divorce. I do not believe God intended for people to have sexual relationships outside the sacrament of marriage. I do not believe God intended for people to have homosexual desires. And yet that is the condition in which we find ourselves. These things happen so Christian must have compassion for these inclinations to sin. At the same time, we cannot abandon the teachings of our faith by affirming such desires as wholesome and accept our culture embracing them.

Without the restraints of civil law, religious conviction, and a chaste culture, the trend has been to delay marriage (in favor of more sexual partners during the most fertile years) or serial monogamy (trading the old for new after the glow of romance has faded). As a species we seem to be somewhat polygomous but that doesn't mean that is how it should be.

[CapnAwesome]

Of course it's unnatural. Most people aren't monogamous long term. Isn't that the definition of what's natural? Evolution drives men to spread their genes with lots of different women.

In my case sexy glasses wearing brunettes with short hair.

[The Grand Nudger]

Evolutionary pressures produced monogamy and promiscuity.  The relative advantage to either strategy isn't something that can be determined in advance, and an environment can favor monogamy over promiscuity just as easily as it can favor promiscuity over monogamy, shift back and forth between the two, or allow a niche for both.

That some part of a population engages in a different set of behaviors doesn;t make those behaviors or individuals "unnatural" in any evolutionary sense. It makes them a divergent strategy that may (or may not) become dominant in the next iteration of that pop..depending on how well represented they become.

The first amphibian wasn;t "unnatural". The first bird wasn;t "unnatural". They were different than most of their peers....but, terrestrial and avian life seems to have been a good bet among many bets, in retrospect. Monogamy, similarly, confers advantages in environments where promiscuity does not, and even in environments where promiscuity is an equally viable strategy (vv also the case).

We produce relatively helpless offspring with a long wait to adulthood. This alone is enough of a reason for some of us to be monogamous. We could throw hundreds of children into the meatgrinder..and we do..but we could also invest heavily in those offspring we have..and that..in human beings, is an enterprise that can exceed our own reproductive viability. Some of us just don't have any kids left in us when we're done with the first batch.

[Catholic_Lady]

Of course it's unnatural.  Most people aren't monogamous long term. Isn't that the definition of what's natural? Evolution drives men to spread their genes with lots of different women.

In my case sexy glasses wearing brunettes with short hair.

This is a long shot, but do you by any chance know a Bekah Martinez?

[The Valkyrie]

Polygamy has to be for dire situations like taking care orphans and widows during a time when many men in society have been killed.

Otherwise monogamy has to be the norm, or you get guys like me left out with no women to find

Actually, that is one of the major problems with polygamy. While it may be a cliche, women are a civilizing influence on men. It is not healthy for a society to have significant numbers of single young men with few prospects of marriage or avoiding it altogether.

But the question of whether or not it is natural is itself problematic for me. Living in a fallen creation and the corruption of the flesh by sin have altered our relationships to each other and to Nature. So while some desires are common in Nature, making it in one sense "natural", that doesn't equate to nature (including human nature) as God intended it to be. I don't believe God intended for people to be alone, yet many are. I do not believe God intended for people to divorce. I do not believe God intended for people to have sexual relationships outside the sacrament of marriage. I do not believe God intended for people to have homosexual desires. And yet that is the condition in which we find ourselves. These things happen so Christian must have compassion for these inclinations to sin. At the same time, we cannot abandon the teachings of our faith by affirming such desires as wholesome and accept our culture embracing them.

Without the restraints of civil law, religious conviction, and a chaste culture, the trend has been to delay marriage (in favor of more sexual partners during the most fertile years) or serial monogamy (trading the old for new after the glow of romance has faded). As a species we seem to be somewhat polygomous but that doesn't mean that is how it should be.

So, by your first paragraph, you're saying we should have all "incels" euthanised?

I can go for that.

[Amarok]

And more of Wooter spewing off about stuff he's totally ignorant of

[SaStrike]

Fake tits are the only unnatural part of the entire planet.

[CapnAwesome]

Of course it's unnatural.  Most people aren't monogamous long term. Isn't that the definition of what's natural? Evolution drives men to spread their genes with lots of different women.

In my case sexy glasses wearing brunettes with short hair.

This is a long shot, but do you by any chance know a Bekah Martinez?

Lol, what?

[Catholic_Lady]

This is a long shot, but do you by any chance know a Bekah Martinez?

Lol, what?

I'll take that as a no lol. I didn't know if the rock climbing community was very small out there and maybe you knew her.

[Whateverist]

'Biblical' know?